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Asia and Europe’s challenges for the autumn: A macroeconomic and financial perspective

Europe in the Global Economy

Date and time: 12 September 2014 11:00

Side-event to the 11th ASEM Finance Ministers Meeting, Milan, Italy

Growth remains sluggish in Europe and increasingly is beginning to slow down cross emerging markets in Asia. This roundtable of leading economists will examine this issue by looking at the key factors that are likely to shape the evolution of Asian and European economies in the forthcoming months. Key issues that will be addressed include the effectiveness of monetary expansion in Asia and Europe as well as possible spillover effects of the US Federal Reserve’s tapering; the importance of the macro-financial links and the role of fiscal policy in European and Asian perspectives; the effectiveness of the new institutional framework developed in the context of the European Banking Union as well as the impact of the ECB’s comprehensive assessment; and the role of global demand factors and of investment in fostering sustainable growth.

Programme download

10:00: Introductory remarks by Ambassador ZHANG Yan, Executive Director, Asia-Europe Foundation

10:15: Presentation of the panel by Moderator Mr. Guntram WOLFF, Director, Bruegel

Discussion with

Dr. Alan AHEARNE – Head of Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway and External Advisor to the Strategy, Practice and Review Department of the International Monetary Fund

Dr. FAN Gang – Director, National Economic Research Institute and Secretary-General of China Reform Foundation

Mr. Carlo MONTICELLI – Director General for International and Financial Relations, Treasury Department, Ministry of Economy and Finance Italy

Dr. André SAPIR – Professor of Economics at Université Libre de Bruxelles and former Economic advisor to the president of the European Commission

12:00: Buffet lunch offered by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) to all attendees

REGISTER

by email at [email protected]

Speakers

Alan Ahearne is Professor and Head of Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is currently Adviser to the Strategy, Practice and Review Department of the IMF, and a Member of the Commission (Board of Directors) of the Central Bank of Ireland. He has been a research fellow at Bruegel since 2005. He served as Special Adviser to Ireland’s former Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan from 2009 to 2011. In this role, he advised the Minister on economic, budgetary and financial policy in responding to the economic and financial crisis. Alan obtained his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh) in 1998 and subsequently joined the Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, where he worked for seven years as a Senior Economist. At the Fed, he advised Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and other Fed Governors on developments in the global economy. He was the principal economist at the Fed covering the Japanese and Chinese economies.

Fan Gang is chairman of China Reform Foundation and Director of the National Economic Research Institute. He is also Professor of Economics at Peking University and the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is also an advisor to various departments of Chinese Central government and provincial governments; was independent member of China Monetary Policy Committee during 2006-2010; guest professor of number of universities and graduate schools; and served as economic consultant to various international organizations and played leading roles in research projects commissioned by The World Bank, ADB, UNDP, OECD, etc. PhD in economics, he received Docteur Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctor) from University of Auvergne, France, and Royal Road University of Canada, in 2004 and 2011 respectively, and was listed as one of “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” jointly by Foreign Policy and Prospect, in 2005 and 2008 consecutively and listed as one of “100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy in 2010.

Carlo Monticelli is Head of International Financial Relations in the Italian Ministry of the Economy and Finance. His responsibilities include analysis of economic, financial and institutional matters, the preparation of Ministerial international meetings like Eurogroup-Ecofin, G7, GB, G20 as well as the participation to formal and informal groups and committees. He is Alternate Governor for Italy in the World Bank, in the Asian Development Bank and in the African Development Bank. He is also Member of the Board of Directors in the EIB. He has contributed to develop the Advance Market Commitment for Vaccines pilot project on pneumococcal disease, successfully completed with joining and support of international donors and partners. Until 2002, he was for long attending to economic research and policy analysis, particularly in Monetary and in International Financial sectors, as Deputy Director in the Research Departments of Bank of Italy and, successively, as Head of European Economy - Global Markets Research of the Deutsche Bank in London. His activities still include presentations at many conferences and workshops of international relevance, as well as teaching in post-graduate courses. He has contributed several articles to academic journals.

André Sapir is Senior Fellow of Bruegel and Professor at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is Vice-Chair of the Advisory Scientific Committee and voting member of the General Board of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). From 2005 to 2009 he was member of the Economic Advisory Group to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Previously, he worked 12 years for the European Commission, first serving as Economic Advisor to the Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, then as Economic Advisor to President Romano Prodi. André Sapir has written extensively on various aspects of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union, including banking, as well as on international policy coordination, international trade and globalisation. He received a PhD in Economics from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. He was elected Member of the Academia Europaea in 2010 and of the Royal Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in 2012.

Guntram Wolff is the Director of Bruegel since June 2013. His research focuses on the European economy and governance, on fiscal and monetary policy and global finance. He regularily testifies to the European Finance Ministers' ECOFIN meeting, the European Parliament, the German Parliament and the French Parliament and is a member of the French prime minister's Conseil d'Analyse Economique. He joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he was coordinating the research team on fiscal policy at Deutsche Bundesbank. He also worked as an adviser to the International Monetary Fund. He holds a PhD from the University of Bonn, studied economics in Bonn, Toulouse, Pittsburgh and Passau and previously taught economics at the University of Pittsburgh and at Université libre de Bruxelles.